Monthly Archives: April 2015

Learn About Nests on PBS NATURE, April 8

Books & Events, Nesting & Courtship

2 April 2015

Just in time for nesting season PBS NATURE premieres their three-part series Animal Homes.  Episode 1 on April 8th is devoted to Nests.

Using time lapse photography, infrared light and tiny HD cameras, the producers got up close and personal during all the stages of nest building.  The Anna’s hummingbird above is just a taste of the beautiful footage and intimate looks at the birds.

Each nest is custom made.  The wonder is that strong, resilient, and intricate nests are woven out of grass and twigs using only a beak.  And some build with mud, sticks or merely leaves:

  • Red ovenbirds (rufous hornero) of South America build an oven-shaped nest entirely of mud with an amazing internal baffle that forces them to squeeze in sideways.  Watch what they do when the cowbirds come.
  • A male osprey attracts a mate while he builds a 400-pound nest from scratch, stick by enormous stick!
  • Male Australian brush turkeys build compost heaps of leaves where multiple females deposit their eggs, as many as 50 eggs per heap.  It doesn’t matter whose kids they are.  The “kids” are self sufficient when they hatch.
  • Chalk-browed mockingbirds battle shiny cowbirds at the nest and sometimes win.

And if you bird by ear, don’t just “watch” the show.  Listen, too!  There’s a message in the soundtrack, the song of a familiar North American bird whose name is a nod to the name of the program.  I thought its voice was misplaced in the South American footage until I read on Wikipedia that “It occurs from Canada to southernmost South America and is thus the most widely distributed bird in the Americas.”

Very cool, PBS NATURE!  I learn something new every day.

Watch Animal Homes: Nests on PBS NATURE, April 8 at 8:00pm EDT.  In Pittsburgh it’s on WQED.

(video from PBS NATURE)

Dorothy Laid An Egg

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines

Dorothy inspects her egg, 2 April 2015, 6:41am (snapshot from the Naitonal Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

Dorothy laid her first egg of 2015 this morning at 6:41 am at the Cathedral of Learning.

At 16 years old she is elderly for a peregrine falcon, so every egg is a miracle.  This is her latest ever first egg date.  In her prime, she always laid in mid March.

Shortly after laying the egg, she called E2 and he came to see.

Dorothy and E2 discuss the first egg (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

 

7:52am:  E2 brought breakfast for Dorothy. After she left to eat he zoomed in to guard the egg.

E2 arrives to guard the egg (snapshot from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

 

And here’s a video of the egg laying, thanks to Bill Powers at PixController. There is no color in the video because it happened just before dawn.

Watch Dorothy and E2 here on the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning.

If you’re new to peregrines, click here for information on their nesting habits.  Learn about the color of their eggs and their strategy for incubation.

 

(snapshot from the National Aviary falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning)

Corals Tell The Climate Story, April 16

Climate Change, Water and Shore

Coral reef at Palmyra Atoll (photo by Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Coral reef at Palmyra Atoll (photo by Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Knowing the Earth’s past climate is key to understanding the future but our records of the past are sketchy.  Paleoclimatologists turn to fossils for help.  In cold and temperate areas they analyze ice cores and ancient tree rings.  In the tropics corals tell the climate’s tale.

Obtaining a record of the warm oceans’ history is important because so much of Earth’s weather is controlled by conditions in the Tropics.  Think El Niño and La Niña, for starters.

In the tropical Pacific Dr. Kim Cobb examines live and fossil corals to assemble a climate record that now spans 7,000+ years.  Thanks to the University Honors College she’s coming to Pittsburgh on April 16.  Through video and photos, she’ll take the audience to her field sites to hear the corals tell their climate story.

Dr. Kim Cobb
Corals as Climate Communicators
April 16, 2015, 4:00 PM
Charity Randall Theatre (in the Stephen Foster Memorial Building)
4301 Forbes Ave

Here’s a quick video of Kim Cobb discussing climatology.  She describes herself on  Twitter as “40% Climate Scientist, 40% Mom and 20% Indian Jones.”  Her lecture on corals will not be a dry subject!

 

This lecture is free and open to the public but space is limited. Click here to read more about this University of Pittsburgh Honors College event and reserve your seat.

 

(photo of coral reef at Palmyra Atoll (a location where Kim Cobb works on corals) by Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia Commons. Video of Dr. Kim Cobb via PopTech.org)